Leo J. Hickey - US grants

The doctoral student, Linda Raubeson, working under the supervision of Dr. Leo Hickey at Yale University, will undertake a study of the evolutionary history of the 7 families of conifers (pines), based on two kinds of molecular data, chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) structural rearrangements, and sequence data from the nuclear 18s rDNA (ribosomal) gene. The time since the 7 families became separate evolutionary lineages is estimated to be 300 million years; the chosen molecular characters are evolutionarily conservative and should be informative at that time depth. The proposed research timetable covers two years; although, a doctoral student at Yale, Raubeson will spend the first year doing the cpDNA work with Robert Jansen at the University of Connecticut and six months of the second year sequencing the 18s rDNA genes with Elizabeth Zimmer at LSU. The student has already isolated total DNA from 23 species including representatives of all 7 families and has done limited restriction enzyme digests and mapping. Zimmer has sequenced portions of the 18s rDNA gene for conifers. Both data types appear to be informative at the appropriate time depth. The completed research will clarify our understanding of the evolutionary history of this economically important assemblage of trees.

This award supports an investigation of the age of pollen, megafloral and vertebrate fossil collections from the Eureka Sounds Group of the Canadian Arctic. Attempts to date collections from Ellesmere Island using magnetostratigraphy ultimately produced a reliable record but the polarity sequence was too short for a unique correlation to the geomagnetic reversal time scale (GRTS). This project will sample a 3000m thick interval of co-eval sediments from Axel Heiberg Island to improve temporal calibration of the unique Eureka Sound Group biostratigraphic record.//

This award is for support of a two year study to test a preliminary magnetostratigraphic correlation which was developed for Strand Fjord, Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada. In addition to extending the section to younger (Eocene) and older (Campaign- Maastrichtian) sediments, an in-depth lithostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic study will be made of a laminated lagoonal sequence at Strand Fjord. This sequence affords a nearly unique opportunity to obtain a Late Cretaceous polar paleoclimate record of annual variability that also extends into the Milankovitch frequency band.

9300091 Hickey The Yale Peabody Museum houses an extensive collection of fossil plants of great historical and research value. That collection was recently enhanced when Yale accepted two orphaned paleobotanical collections from the New York Botanical Garden and Princeton University. This support will allow the preservation, housing and incorporation of the orphaned collections into the main collection, computerization in ARGUS of the more than 42,000 fossil plant specimens, dissemination of the database over Internet, and identification and segregation of the more than 4000 type specimens that are critical to research in paleobotany. Yale will produce a type catalogue both in published and electronic form, the dissemination of which will increase the access to and research and educational use of these collections. %%% This award will support the preservation of two important, historical collections of fossil plants at Yale Peabody Museum recently orphaned by the New York Botanical Garden and Princeton University. These collections, along with main Yale collection will be computerized, with the resultant database made freely available electronically and in print. This activity will not only preserve an essential research resource in paleobotany, but will make this resource much more broadly available for research and education in the history of plant diversity. *** " @ ! pj F `z QS l >t F 6 E U Q v . ( 6 E | 2 /t Be D4 D# W aj^ K# ; r + @ @3 v e4 } v b2ebOVPa # Jr v% = u: 1 ^ =2cdV2 6| H P ( R Br " S E c 4 E C $ $ $ $ $ $ $ D z z ( Times New Roman Symbol & Arial 1 1 N& " h E E 7 Leonard Krishtalka Leonard Krishtalka

The Paleobotany collection of the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University) is one of the largest and most historically important in the United States. WIth over 150,000 specimens, it comprises four separate units: the original Yale Collection, the New York Botanical Garden Collection, the Princeton Colletion, and the more recent field collections of Peabody curators and students. This project will focus efforts on the reorganization, compactorization, and completion of the electronic cataloguing of the Paleobotany Collection in Yale University's new Environmental Science Facility, currently under construction. Purchase of a compactor system and of a standard size of cabinetry, both conforming to the collections equipment standard of the ESF, will optimize space, and the move will allow a unique opportunity to reorganize and integrate the four collection units. Specimen data that have not yet been electronically catalogued will be entered into the Peabody's museum-wide relational database system, Argus, and will be available over the Peabody Museum website.

Ecologists study ecosystems that currently appear on the planet and from this picture, essentially a single slice of geological time, they attempt to explain patterns like altitudinal and latitudinal gradients in diversity and ecosystem responses to climatic change. In contrast, paleontologists work with much lower resolution data but provide a temporal (historical) dimension. This proposal will develop and test a methodology to combine these two disciplines and examine the historical, macro-ecological patterns of forest community distribution. The proposed work would provide an ecological classification of both modern and fossil forest ecosystems based on the leaf architectural characters of the floras. This approach is justified by the fact that there is a relationship between leaf traits and ecological factors such as climate, such that modern forests ecosystems can be reasonably classified from leaf traits. The P.I.s propose to extend this approach to fossil assemblages. A substantial data set of modern and fossil leaf traits will also be created and made publicly available from this work. The results would provide a quantitative tool through which ecologists could place their research into a much longer temporal context, and through which paleontologists could begin to address significant ecological questions with their research.

Intellectual Merit: Flowering plants (angiosperms) are the largest (>270,000 species), most diverse, and economically most important group of green plants. Understanding the origin, patterns of variation, and relationships among angiosperms is challenging. Despite progress, relationships among major groups remain unclear, as do relationships within major subgroups (e.g., roses and allies). Our multigene and genomics approaches target 12 problematic groups and subgroups; their resolution should clarify the framework for angiosperm phylogeny. We also will develop the first comprehensive non-DNA database for angiosperms and populate it with key morphological features. Together, our approaches will lay groundwork for collaboratively building the tree of all 12,000 genera of angiosperms.

Broader Impacts: The angiosperm tree will be useful to comparative biologists including physiologists, ecologists, paleobiologists, and genomicists. The Botany Browser we develop will provide an informatics infrastructure to bring many data resources to users' desktops. The Angiosperm MorphBank will facilitate group diagnosis, analyses of character distributions, and study of fossils. Our interdisciplinary training of postdoctoral fellows and students will emphasize recruitment of minorities. Our website on angiosperm diversity will be valuable to researchers, K-12 teachers, and students. We will construct pages for the Tree of Life Web Project including TreeHouses designed for K-12 students and teachers. A movable museum exhibit highlighting advances in our understanding of plant phylogeny will be distributed to museums represented in our project. Posters detailing the angiosperm tree will be designed and distributed and made available on CD. Additional outreach will be provided through presentations to local public schools.